Friday 18 June 2010

Geàrr, Hare Day

Today started unexpectedly. My little dog Billy, caught a hare! Goodness knows how he did it (unless he stole it from the cats!). I never knew he had it in him and, frankly, I wish that he hadn´t - hares are sacred animals and I was very upset to see the beautiful creature dead. At least he had the grace not to mangle it up and, when we discovered him, he was just keeping guard over it.

Well, what is one to do? The poor little creature had already given its life, so I had to deal with it. Head, feet, entrails and fur were buried with reverence in the centre of the labyrinth and tail hung from the central olive tree. Billy lay by the tree for over an hour, until I had cooked the meat. Dog and cats will feast on hare for 2 or 3 days!

I was particularly upset because it is almost exactly a year since I had the privelege of participating in the Solstice Eve release of two hares (Couve and Flor) back into the wild. I wrote about this fully at the time on my Covenspace blog but, as Covenspace is no more, neither is my blog or the photos. So here, for those who didn´t see them, are a couple of amazing pictures from that event:























Rather than staying sad about the dead hare all day, it had the strange effect of stimulating a burst of creative, magical energy. I researched my Druid Animal cards and discovered that the
old name for the spirit hare is Geàrr. My Cornish witchcraft book has White Hare as the familiar of the Southern Road on the Compass Wheel, which in this system represents Earth. The tools of this direction are magical stones, so I painted Geàrr on a smooth pebble for use in future healing rituals that call on this aspect of the Compass. I also created a Book of Shadows entry for White Hare and compiled Hare Smoke incense for use in Ostara and Mabon rituals. I feel the hare was a gift and I trust my efforts have honoured its sacrifice.








Posted by Picasa

Like the Princess and the Pea...

...Pippy acting like the princess that she is.
Posted by Picasa

Wednesday 16 June 2010

Slow Recovery...

After a wet spring buried under a thicket of tall, impenetrable weeds, our labyrinth is slowly re-emerging. Thanks to S. for his hard work, and lately a little involvement from myself. This being our second labyrinth, we can class ourselves as somewhat expert in construction and so I thought that I would do an ocassional blog on the subject, offering some cautionary tales from our own experience. Well, that is my intention ...
p.s. I have just seen that our recovery of the labyrinth started in April and or intention was to have it ready for Beltane. Looks like Litha is the new target ;-)Posted by Picasa

Saturday 12 June 2010

A sad day at the quinta...


 
The longest serving resident, Donna Duck, brought as an egg from England and hatched under a broody hen in 2006, was sadly taken by dogs or other preditors in the early hours of this morning. She has never succeeded in rearing a brood, despite trying every year. I was distraut and will miss her so much. She was a jolly bird, always with plenty to say and had the most delightful way of waddling around the place.
Posted by Picasa

Sunday 6 June 2010

Vice guide to travel Liberia pt 6

Watch this if you have a brave stomach. The whole documentary is a horrifying eye-opener but if you manage to stick with this episode to the end, I guarantee you will find inspiration. If that guy can change his life, ANYBODY can change their life for the better too.

Inspired to a breakthrough

Here is the link to the Diet Soap podcast: http://dietsoap.podomatic.com/entry/eg/2010-05-30T11_31_53-07_00 and also Terance McKenna on Psychedelic Salon: http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podshows/3885191 that inspired me to create this mindmap.
Posted by Picasa

Saturday 5 June 2010

I love this video and cringe-makingly accurate for this particular scorpio woman. Check out Debra Silverman´s other 11 zodiac videos here.

Rant

Please, please, all website designers and owners, please, do not add music to your website that plays as soon as the page loads. This is especially true if it is not easy or even possible to turn it off quickly. If I am listening to the radio or a podcast online, I find it really anoying when some dippy new age tune plays over the top unexpectedly.

Wednesday 2 June 2010

Gorilla and Human Reunion

I know it´s lazy to keep posting other people´s material but this was so beautiful and it really made me happy. I hope it does for you too.